What’s the value of reputation? That was the question on guests’ lips at Huntsman last week, when our chairman Pierre Lagrange hosted the launch of “The Reputation Game,” a new book by financial public relations consultant David Waller and Rupert Younger, director of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation.

The duo’s work looks at the elusive nature of reputation, and how it’s won and lost, and spotlights interviews with figures as diverse as Jay-Z, Bernie Madoff, and Hilary Mantel.

Waller and Younger chatted with guests about the process of creating the book, which its publishers describe as laying bare “the rules to life’s most important game.”

Among those gathered were journalist and author Nick Foulkes, Ian Kelly – the author of a biography on legendary dresser Beau Brummell – and artist David Dawson, the former assistant to the late Lucian Freud, alongside names from the worlds of politics, fashion, and finance – all well-placed to muse on the significance of reputation.

And clearly, dressing the part is an important part of the reputation equation, with guests mulling whether it’s the suit that makes the man or the man that makes the suit.

The cosy dinner was by Casa Cruz, with dishes such as foie gras terrine, tuna tartare, and seared organic salmon – refined fuel for the night’s philosophical mood.